Version 1 sucks. Ship it anyway? Yeah, Cuil can tell you how well that worked out.
Cuil didn't just ship; Cuil was launched Hollywood style with a tremendous amount of anticipation and buzz. If they had soft launched, their fail wouldn't have been nearly as epic.
Re:Version 1 Sucks, But Ship It Anyway
by daleharvey on Friday December 04, 2009 @12:35PM
(#976783)
I think as programmers we have a tendency to err on the side of taking shipping too seriously, this is a lesson I have been burnt by and probably wont get sick of hearing.
another important point I think that is part of the same, design your product in a way that allows you to ship early. forget about all the bells and whistles before you launch, think of the simplest possible thing that is useful.
this is a concious process and a bit different from just losing the fear of launching 'bad' stuff.
Version 1 sucks. Ship it anyway? Yeah, Cuil can tell you how well that worked out.
Clearly, the decision to ship is one that should be taken seriously, and the pros and cons of shipping need to be weighed. There's an upside to shipping early (feedback from users) but there are a lot of potential downsides as well.
But we all knew that already, didn't we?